OCEAN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
page 32 - February, 1964, Ben Oostdam's Autobiography
Feb.7, Friday: . . . Party aboard did not last too long, since Wally went berserk and made his crew start work at 02:30. I was about the only one without a major hangover, but didn't do much. Answered letters from home and Rose, and got a fine letter from Hedda Hussel (ex-London au-pair of Charles Cockburn's mom, 1960) - now Lufthansa airhostess in Hamburg. Prepared for a dive, but just about everything went wrong: no boat, no weights, poor tank and bad regulator. A new Collins' geologist joined us, Desmond Hugo. Most of the crew went ashore again that evening, but I did not.
| Feb. 8: Sailed all night and day through the fog. Captain was fed up. We read and played chess. Poor Des O'Shea was seasick. | Feb. 9, Sunday: Sailed past Oranjemund, saw Yacht Club and thought about Denise. Read a lot, especially about Sparker. |
Feb.10 (Mon) through 12 (Wed) : Find out that our charts are rather poor. Started long line ( 7 NM or to depth of 50 fathoms) survey
South of Orange River, till sea got too rough and most of crew seasick. I myself took to my bunk after dinner and slept till past midnight.
We were radio'ed to put into port and drive back after survey. On Tuesday morning, we started at 05:00. Compressor went out, so we did
records below, which made our stomachs squeezy. Later the weather improves and I did some stats and beat John Hoyt at chess. On Wednesday, Des and I made another drift buoy, then launched four of them nearshore. The deep one ran aground. Since it was our last survey day,
Captain Roy was rather rambunctious.
NOTE: some of the info we gathered on this cruise
went into our joint paper a few years later.
Feb.13 -14 : We worked on the Orange River map all morning, while the crew shaved and bathed. Packed in a hurry, dressed in my bush-shirt, removed handwinch. 14:00 we put into Port Nolloth, foggy, looked medieval. Drinks on Tatum. Newly hired John Fleming came to collect us in Kombi. First some messing around with Bill and his full Landrover, into which he had to prop Walsh and John Hoyt.
| Both cars departed at 17:00, I drove Kombi through fine Namaqua landscape. |
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At 19:00, we had a quick dinner, then drove on all night on bad roads, with a leak in the tank, through the fog,singing with Des, racing with Bill, and chewing biltong. |